A Card In Hand

Chapter 31: I, Challenge You!

Li Ao raised an eyebrow.

It sounded familiar.

This phrase was incredibly familiar, albeit sounding as foolish as ever.

“Since you’ve requested so sincerely, I will graciously fulfill your wish!”

Li Ao shrugged his shoulders; Prince Jinxi was already itching to beat him up himself, so what could he do?

Just fight!

“See you on the platform in a bit!”

Prince Jinxi’s smile overflowed from the bottom of his heart; he was most afraid of Li Ao backing down.

Now, seeing that Li Ao was not only not backing down but also eager to fight to the end, he was overjoyed.

A frog in a well.

Did you really think, just because you took advantage of my cursed state and fell, then slightly gained the upper hand in martial combat through your personal talent, that you could compete with me?

You are too naïve! I will beat you into a pile of trash, leaving you so battered on the platform that you couldn’t even be swept up!

Did you really think you won just because I wasn’t injured in the previous martial combat?

Just wait!

With a smile, Prince Jinxi slowly passed by Li Ao, full of pride.

Li Ao yawned out of boredom.

On the Obsidian Platform.

Two assistant referees pulled out a purple card.

They each summoned a ‘Crystal Rainbow Phantom Butterfly’ and transformed them onto a floating island, positioning them to tilt slightly towards the platform, while directly facing the audience seats on the other rock islands.

Crystal Rainbow Phantom Butterflies have no combat capabilities; they are a type of spatial beast that likes to store the light fluctuations within a certain space through their mirroring abilities.

They have long lifespans; even the lowest-ranked Crystal Rainbow Phantom Butterflies can easily live over a thousand years.

What’s more incredible.

The crystal cores left behind after these butterflies die retain and preserve all the mirrored images they recorded during their lifetimes.

The Human Alliance uses their unique abilities to create recordings, serving as historical records.

Living Crystal Rainbow Phantom Butterflies.

Commanded by the summoner’s thoughts.

They can replay the stored images repeatedly by consuming certain energy.

For example, important guidance from legendary ancestors thousands of years ago can still be smoothly passed down to future generations through the records of Crystal Rainbow Phantom Butterflies.

Of course, particularly important matches can also be recorded and replayed in detail through their unique abilities for the best viewing experience.

As the most crucial and final part of the triennial Newcomer’s Trial, the Unlimited Challenge, recording with Crystal Rainbow Phantom Butterflies is the most basic operation.

In fact.

If someone becomes a legend after this session, the Trial Temple will also duplicate this recorded footage as a meaningful gift for that legendary warrior, marking the start of his personal glory and allowing this piece of naive historical memory to become an important part of his life’s reminiscence.

“Welcome everyone, as the overall supervisor of this session, I want to tell you that today is just your beginning; you have an infinite future! Once, I was just like you, coming to this Unlimited Challenge arena with excitement, eagerness, and a bit of anxiety. At that time, I was eager to prove myself to the world yet afraid that I was not strong enough, worried that I would encounter a formidable opponent as soon as I stepped onto the platform.”

Supervisor Lei Bao appeared on the platform, and at the same time, the two Crystal Rainbow Phantom Butterflies transformed into giant crystal walls, immediately projecting Lei Bao’s full-body image.

Through the telekinetic control of two assistant referees, Supervisor Lei Bao’s speech and its various details were meticulously recorded by two Crystal Rainbow Phantom Butterflies, serving as a historical witness for this batch of newcomers.

As Lei Bao spoke, one assistant referee continued to maintain image tracking on him, while the other, in perfect coordination, swept the recording target across each newcomer.

The scan covered the top-ranked newcomers: Prince Jinxi, ranked first; Lie Feng, ranked second; Man Huang, ranked third; and closely following, Tie Zheng—scanning through the elites of the major families.

The scan then immediately moved to other newcomers who had shown higher combat power or outstanding talents during the earlier measurements.

Li Ao, as a mysterious newcomer who had once fortuitously defeated Prince Jinxi, was also given attention among the top thirty.

The assistant referee, highly skilled in recording, even used a luminescent beast known as the Starry Firefly for visual effects, marking each scanned newcomer with their combat power and personal evaluations.

For instance, Li Ao’s combat power and personal evaluation were: Li Ao, a distant relative of the Iron Clan’s Silverlight City branch, proficient in combat skills, personal talent unknown, previous combat power test maximum value 62, current combat power ??? Known contract with a Black Iron-level war beast, Stone Bear, obtained ability Stone Body Protection.

If Li Ao had not defeated Prince Jinxi, his combat power and talent would not have merited a scan among the top thirty targets.

Fuxi, a heavyweight.

He was scanned among those ranked from fifty to one hundred.

His combat power and personal evaluation were even less detailed: Fuxi, a member of the Iron Clan’s Silverlight City branch, stout and robust, possesses the talent Strength of Nine Bulls, combat power 250.

“I’m Li Ao’s big boss, how could I only get a fleeting shot? Moreover, I own two Bronze-level war beasts, an Ironskin Rhino and a Fanged Wild Boar, and you didn’t mark either of them; you forgot them all. Li Ao’s stupid Black Iron Bear got more screen time than me, where’s the justice?” Fuxi was very displeased.

I’m the real boss here!

You’re really looking down on people!

Li Ao only won against Prince Jinxi by borrowing my luck, and you don’t even mention it.

Keeping a low profile to save face, I know about that, but that doesn’t mean you guys can completely ignore it, you’re too excessive…

Fuxi wanted to explain to the Goddess Huo Mei, “I’m actually very outstanding, they completely missed my strengths and biggest advantages, you surely don’t know yet that Li Ao used my luck to defeat Prince Jinxi, right?”

“Shut up!” Huo Mei had no interest in talking to him.

“I…” Fuxi felt wronged.

“Shut up or die!”

Cang Yue glared at him with his terrifying gold-silver demonic pupils.

“Uh!”

Fuxi quickly shut up.

It wasn’t that he was afraid of death; as a man who feared neither heaven nor earth, he definitely wasn’t afraid of dying, but he was scared of Cang Yue’s beatings.

It’s well known.

Cang Yue is a temperamental madman, prone to hitting people at the slightest provocation, especially fond of hitting faces.

Fuxi definitely did not want to provoke this big-eyed monster.

And then simply endure a beating from him.

“The new era belongs to you, the rookies. Perhaps you are still very inexperienced now, like saplings just breaking through the soil, but the future will eventually belong to you! As an old fellow with no special achievements, I do not wish to waste too much of your time here. I believe you have all prepared well for today! Rookies, I will be here watching you challenge your limits and achieve an infinite future!”

Lei Bao’s speech finally came to an end.

It was followed by the customary blessings.

Wishing everyone good results.

Verbose and lengthy.

As soon as everyone heard it was over, they quickly clapped their hands.

Lei Bao leaped up and in the blink of an eye, he had reached the floating rock isle in mid-air, then sat down in the centermost spot of the largest grandstand.

Below his high and mighty Supervisor position sat Supervisors Chang Chi and Dou Guang.

Further away.

There were a dozen mysterious men draped in cloaks.

They were elders sent by various major families, who, although they could not reveal themselves openly, would track their family juniors’ trials from start to finish.

In addition to this.

There were three old men dressed in temple robes.

They sat quietly in an unobtrusive corner, discreetly observing the behavior of all the newcomers.

“The 9518th session of the Newcomers’ Trial, the sixth event of the Unlimited Challenge, officially begins. This is the final honor battle of this session, which will be a key factor in determining the ranking of the newcomers! According to the rules of the competition, within three days, any newcomer can challenge any opponent, and no one can refuse a challenge for any reason. Surrender or defeat will be considered a loss, and the loser’s ranking will be below that of the victor. If multiple duels occur between the challenger and the challenged within three days and both parties have wins and losses, the final ranking will be decided based on the outcome of their last match!” an assistant referee announced from the platform.

The Unlimited Challenge had no time limit, no restrictions on war beasts or treasures.

It was a life-or-death contest.

Consequences were the responsibility of the participants.

Only if an opponent completely lost consciousness and combat ability, and someone still persisted in malicious killing, would the referee intervene and expel them from the list of graduates from the Newcomer’s Trial.

As the assistant referee finished announcing the rules, Prince Jinxi, who was already eager, lightly tapped his Silver Moon boots.

With a void jump, he appeared on the Obsidian Platform.

His finger.

Pointed directly at Li Ao, who was currently standing in the preparatory area below the platform: “I challenge you!”